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Does giving a sporting event the guise of social responsibility rob it of its sheen? Well, this question rose in my mind because there are two tennis tournaments playing in Indian cities at the moment. The formats are the same, with each tie consisting of five matches among singles and doubles players. The franchises are geographically designated, so fans can be emotionally associated with them. The teams comprise ageing legends, current players and Indian racquet wielders. Yet one league has evinced the interest of everyone, the other is being given the bye.
The Champions Tennis League (CTL) kicked off first, on Monday, with a match between Delhi Dreams and Punjab Marshalls at the RK Khanna Stadium in the capital. Despite the presence of Juan Carlos Ferrero, Greg Rusedski, Jelena Jankovic, Somdev Devvarman and Leander Paes, not to mention Bollywood star Ajay Devgn, co-owner of the Delhi franchise, there was room enough to lounge around in the bright red and green tiers of the arena because only a few people turned up for the show. Presumably, when Venus Williams serves in the coming matches, or Mark Philippoussis, Mikhail Youzhny and Martina Hingis do, there will be as few cheering them on.
The International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) starts on November 28 with a match in Manila in the Phillipines. Fans here are salivating about the Indian leg of the league that will be played in the bigger Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. The enthusiasm is so high that when the first round of gate sales opened on October 31, the tickets for the least priced seats were grabbed within 20 minutes. Roger Federer, playing for the Indian Aces, is of course the big draw, and he has already done his bit to popularise his visit with an amazingly clever piece of marketing in September in which he invited fans to Photoshop him in an Indian environment. But Novak Djokovic will also be there, as will Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Pete Sampras, Marin Cilic and our own Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna.
But is the bigger appetite for IPTL also because of Vijay Amritraj, the man behind CTL, pontifically associating his event with improving Indian tennis? Are tennis fans put off by such announcements, perhaps because they connect the very words “development” and “improvement” with drab exercises that yield little for under-achieving Indian laggards? Do they just want something that may be commercial in intent, but provides better entertainment?
There’s a hint of an answer at Bookmyshow.com , the site on which tickets are being sold for both the events. Tickets of the Rs 3,000 and Rs 27,000 category for Mahesh Bhupati's IPTL are sold out. Few of the higher priced tickets remain, including for the behind-the-baseline Rs 46,000 category. You will need to hurry to book your admission to the match. For CTL, on the other hand, the tickets are there for the asking, everything from the Rs 2,000 Platinum Block tiers to the Rs 600 Silver Blocks. You can go to the ticketing site at leisure and be assured you will get your seat in the section of the stadium of your choice in the city of your choice.
